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To cite this Article Fivush, Robyn(2009)'Speaking silence: The social construction of silence in autobiographical and cultural
narratives',Memory,
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09658210903029404
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658210903029404
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Address correspondence to: Robyn Fivush, Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. E-mail:
psyrf@emory.edu
Parts of this paper were presented at the biennial meetings of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition in July
2007, and many people have helped me think through the ideas expressed here, including David Pillemer, William Hirst, Monisha
Pasupathi, Kate McLean, Tillman Habermas, and the members of my ongoing research reading group, especially Regina Pyke,
Widaad Zaman, Theo Waters, Joanne Deocampo, and Marina Larkina*although, of course, any errors or inconsistencies are
entirely my own. This paper was written in part as a contribution to an interdisciplinary project on The Pursuit of Happiness
established by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University and supported by a grant from the John Templeton
Foundation.
# 2009 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
http://www.psypress.com/memory
DOI:10.1080/09658210903029404
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FIVUSH
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES
Obviously, autobiographical memory and autobiographical narratives are not the same; memories
are multi-modal, and include information encoded
and stored at multiple levels (e.g., implicit and
explicit, episodic and semantic); recent models of
autobiographical memories suggest that autobiographical memories are highly dynamic; each time
SPEAKING SILENCE
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FIVUSH
Moreover, silence can be intentional or unintentional, momentary or enduring (for various definitions and typologies of silence, see Elson, 2001;
Kurzon, 2007; Scott, 1993). More to the point of
my arguments here, being silent can also be a
form of power; by not speaking one is claiming
that one need not explain or justify. Further,
by being silent, one can impose silence on others.
Clearly, the construct of silence, and therefore voice, is multidimensional and needs to be
explicated if it is to serve as an explanatory construct in psychological research. Here, I focus on
two theoretically critical aspects of silence: silence
as imposed, i.e., being silenced, and silence as
shared, i.e., the background of shared knowledge
and understanding that need not be voiced.
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SPEAKING SILENCE
indicate the extent to which these women understand both that they are being silenced by others
who cannot bear to hear their stories, as well as
silencing themselves in order to maintain social
contact with others.
Finally, self-silencing can also occur defensively, when individuals cannot even tell these
stories to themselves (Elson, 2001). Individuals
may engage in active forgetting of experiences
that are too painful or disturbing to remember
(Brewin, 2003; Freyd, 1996), leading to an
inability to voice these experiences even if a
sympathetic listener was available.2 In the words
of a survivor of childhood sexual abuse (Fivush &
Edwards, 2004, p. 11), Its still hard for me to
accept . . . there are occasions, even, I guess its
called denial, even knowing all of it. Once in a
while, I mean, it goes through my head, like, oh,
you know I must be nuts or Im making all this up.
I mean fathers, how could they do this? In these
cases, silencing leads to an inability or unwillingness to remember, creating a gap in ones understanding of the world and of ones self (JanoffBulman, 1992).
When silence is imposed, by self or by others, it
can lead to a loss of memory and a loss of part of
the self. Silence as loss of voice and loss of power
is virtually always seen as negative. In fact, this
kind of silencing can lead to both psychological
and physical problems. The ability to speak and to
be heard, on the other hand, is associated with
psychological and physical well-being (for reviews
see Frattaroli, 2006; Pennebaker, 1997). But
silence need not always be imposed; silence can
be shared, and in sharing silence a very different
conceptualisation of silence emerges.
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FIVUSH
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SPEAKING SILENCE
Master narratives
Whereas life scripts provide a series of normative
and prescriptive events, master narratives provide
culturally shared evaluative frameworks (Thorne
& McLean, 2003). Narratives are empowering, in
that narratives move beyond description to provide an evaluative framework that carries moral
justification. Master narratives are essentially
cultural myths and motifs that provide a moral,
ethical, and affective framework for understanding events. A classic master narrative in American
culture is the Horatio Alger story of a young
poor immigrant boy who worked his way from
rags to riches. This story is a morality tale about
overcoming adversity, pulling oneself up by the
bootstraps, working hard and ultimately achieving
material success. It is the American Dream.
McAdams (2006) has identified a master narrative that is pervasive in American culture, the
redemption narrative. In this narrative the individual, often from an early place of privilege, faces
FIVUSH
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SPEAKING SILENCE
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FIVUSH
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